1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS

- Hugger Orange
- Built 454 V8
- Roll Cage
- Cowl Hood

(Please note: If you happen to be viewing this 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS on a website other than our Garage Kept Motors site, it's possible that you've only seen some of our many photographs of the car due to third-party website limitations. To be sure you access all the more than 140 photographs, as well as a short start-up and walk-around video, please go to our main website: Garage Kept Motors.)

“'71 Chevelle. How do you change America's most popular mid-size car?” – 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle magazine advertisement

The advertising copywriters wasted no time answering their own question: “Very carefully.”

And then they went on to list the new things like “Power-Beam” single headlights, 13 all-new colors, and vinyl covered knobs. Not the sort of improvements to stir the blood or fire much performance lust. But to be fair to Chevrolet's advertising people, back then they were selling the Chevelle as a mid-priced family car that was kind to the environment.

The built-SS '71 Chevelle offered here may share those same “Power-Beam” headlights, bit its performance enhancements take this example car “all the way to eleven.” From its screaming Hugger Orange body paint with twin white stripes to the built 454-cubic-inch V8 under the high-rise, cowl-induction hood, this is a high-performance dream machine. While the car's odometer shows 45,058 miles, the most exciting of those miles are the ones driven since the car was upgraded, modified, and re-born.

The exterior Hugger Orange re-spray was the work of professionals; the finish is uniform, glossy, and free of imperfections. Door jambs and the undersides of hood and trunk are correctly painted orange. The white stripes (with surrounding, thin white outline stripes) flow across the high-rise hood and rear deck in the manner of the classic, late-Sixties Z28 Hugger-Orange cars. A hint at the car's performance upgrades is an exterior-mounted fuel-pressure gauge peeking into the cabin. The front grille wears the performance-identifier “SS” in its center, with a small “Chevrolet” badge below. (The trunk wears the correct “Chevelle” script badge.) The original chrome front bumper has been beautifully maintained, as indeed has the brightwork across the rest of the Chevelle, including window trim, side mirrors, door handles, and the rear bumper hosting the four taillights. Lighting lenses and cabin glass are clear and free of cracks or other damage. Custom, 5-spoke chrome wheels in excellent condition are mounted with performance tires.

More performance upgrades are readily apparent in the black interior, beginning with the complete roll cage, molded racing seats, and back seat deleted. While door trim and roll-up windows are completely stock, the auxiliary gauges (AutoMeter® oil-pressure and water-temperature gauges, and tachometer with shift-point indicator), floor-mounted fire extinguisher, Painless Performance® toggle-switch control panel, and competition-style shifter of the automatic transmission (capped by a grimacing-skull shift knob) are most definitely not. The brushed-metal-and-leather-trimmed, bow-tie-branded sport steering wheel is another addition. A Panasonic® audio head unit is mounted in place of the factory radio. Black cabin carpeting is in place.

Opening the cowl hood reveals the performance-built 454 V8 in the center of a perfectly clean and properly laid-out engine bay. Wearing Edelbrock®-branded cast valve covers and air-cleaner cover, performance exhaust headers, correct orange block paint, and braided-steel fuel lines, the engine casts a beguiling performance aura. Other components—including MSD® ignition—are properly mounted; wiring and hoses are correctly routed. Viewed from below, the exhaust headers, performance dual exhaust system (with crossover), chassis-stiffening tube, and Milodon® oil pan are some of the focal points.

While the more than 140 high-definition photographs and the short walk-around-and-startup video available on the GarageKeptMotors website showcase this '71 Chevelle SS in detail from every angle, including from below, we expect and encourage in-person inspections at our Grand Rapids, Michigan showroom. Please call to arrange an appointment in advance as our showroom is not open to the public. And feel free to get in touch anytime by phone or email if you have questions.

When the ad guys penned their “How do you change America's most popular mid-size car”” headline, none of them could've ever predicted the changes and performance upgrades this Hugger Orange Chevelle would bring into being. And if they ever got behind the wheel, we're pretty sure they'd have come up with a better one-word headline: “Wow!”